Here is a list of the info for each of my workshops and sessions. Would love to have you join me!

Featured Sessions:

If it takes a village to raise a child, then this digital generation calls for a digital village. Studies increasingly show that parent involvement is directly correlated to student achievement, behavior and high school graduation rates. By using digital collaboration tools, parents can become an integral part of their child’s education, sharing from their knowledge, careers, and life experience. For students, their friends and family are the best place to establish their Personal Learning Network, preparing for a lifetime of communication, collaboration and digital citizenship. In this engaging session, attendees will examine pertinent research, explore best practices for implementation, engage live demonstrations of collaborative web environments, view diverse examples, and delve into free, effective Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, Voicethread, video-conferencing, collaborative applications and workspaces, and communication tools. Creating an innovative, connected classroom was never easier than when using these parent-friendly ideas. Whether for individual lessons or yearlong initiatives, educators and educational stakeholders will leave feeling inspired to expand the educational experience with a digital village!

With the emergence of Web 2.0, tablet apps, and global communications tools, the art of writing is becoming increasingly vital to our students. Whether it’s translating the concise word choice of poetry to Twitter, the voice of persuasive essays to blogs, or the delicate crafting of an engaging narrative into ePublishing, effective writing is at the heart of 21st century learning and skills. In this eye-opening session, educators learn how to bring out the inner Shel Silverstein and J. K. Rowling in their students through intentional uses of dynamic applications and student-created digital media. Plus, educators learn about free and affordable ways to promote their budding authors by publishing paper and digital storybooks and anthologies. In fact, these activities, projects and practices have already empowered the presenter’s students to win international digital storytelling awards and even pen an Amazon Best-seller! Through these engaging, student-created projects and instructional practices, educators will see measurable improvements in their students’ spelling, grammar, voice, word choice, figurative language, creativity, elaboration and more! With the ideas, student samples, adaptable rubrics and the practical resources they need to get started, educators will rush to integrate their new learning as soon as they return to school!

Teaching and learning with 3D technologies can improve student achievement, attention, behavior, and more! Learn how three types of 3D educational applications can enhance teaching and learning at all grade levels! 3D design applications allow students to make their mental images a reality by creating 3-dimensional objects and scenes by using programs like Google Sketch-Up and Autodesk Maya. Progressive uses even include augmented reality, virtual environments, and video game creation. 3D printing produces such digitally designed objects in tangible materials from plastic to human tissue. Through its emergence in the “maker” movement, students are engaging an iterative engineering design process firsthand. Finally, stereoscopic 3D is familiar to many students from 3D movies and theme park rides. Whether with glasses or new glasses-free displays, 3D videos and simulations are increasing students’ learning gains, retention, and attention in classrooms around the world. Each 3D technology provides powerful opportunities for learning and develops the essential skills and knowledge needed for success in emerging 21st century fields and careers. Through best practices, practical applications, student-created examples, and true success stories, we will explore the basics of these 3D technologies and how they may serve as the key to maximizing digital age teaching and learning.

Lights! Camera! Student Moviemakers in Action! is a hands-on workshop that assists educators in effectively integrating student-created movie projects into the K-12 classroom. In this engaging workshop, educators will explore the positive impact of student media creation on meeting the challenges of 21st century learning and the participatory digital culture. They will learn a basic workflow for approaching various types of class video projects with iMovie. Plus, educators will also discover powerful applications of several student moviemaking genres and styles, as well as technological hardware and software tools, that support implementation of the NETS-S, the Framework for 21st Century Learning and the Common Core State Standards across curricular areas. Guided hands-on activities and demonstration in making creative and advanced video types, including stop-motion, time lapse, and stereoscopic 3D, round out this session to make it an innovative professional development experience that educators won’t want to miss. Best of all, they will acquire access to extended resources, reproducible classroom materials, sample rubrics, student-created examples and how-to video tutorials. As a result of this inspiring session, educators will leave ready to connect with their students in creative and meaningful ways upon returning to school.

Whether for reading groups, Daily 5, math activities, or creative projects, centers are an ideal way to provide differentiation, independence, and discovery learning in the elementary classroom. By integrating easy-to-implement technology activities into these centers, every student, from kindergarten to fifth grade, can enhance their learning experience while developing progressive technology skills. In this interactive session, attendees gain first-hand experience of six progressive Independent Technology Centers. Each hands-on center provides samples, ideas for extended applications, how-to tutorials, adaptive lesson and rubric templates for K-2 and 3-5, as well as time to experiment with the tools. Plus, the session will provide best practices learned from successful implementation at several elementary schools that are making substantial gains on standardized testing while still promoting technology activities that develop creativity and critical thinking. With practical tools, resources and hands-on experience, attendees will leave confident and inspired to successfully develop 21st century skills and deep learning of the standards through these powerful learning centers.

Welcome!

Welcome to Engaging Education, a collection of resources and ideas that aim to engage our students and help them reach their full potential... as well as engage us as educators in the principles behind what we do every day. I hope you find them helpful, thought-provoking, and time-saving.
Enjoy!

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ISTE 2015

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Featured Posts

A Coming-of-Digital Age Story By Nancye Blair Black Performed by Laney Blair Used to be, learning at school was a bore. Textbooks and textbooks and textbooks. Snore! In class, teachers would talk, students would hear. It was the same old story year after year. Until one day, our principal suddenly appeared With a class set […]

Something “eco-lutionary” is cropping up at schools across the country. While some students might be experiencing the start of the new academic year from behind a desk, others are embracing an expansive sense of classroom that reaches far beyond the schoolhouse walls and into the green. At our public charter school, Lakeland Montessori Middle School, […]

“Beyond waiting “To Grow Up” For too long, our students have worked tirelessly for an audience of one: their teacher. When class assignments assume that work is simply preparation for some future “real world,” this singular audience makes sense. But in the course of a 21st century school year, if a class of students never […]

What should a good citizen do? The question of “what a good citizen should do” in a democratic society begins with an assumption of a universal ethical imperative within democracy. Perhaps this follows from the concept of democracy itself. At the onset of American independence, the writers of the Declaration stated that it was self-evident […]

August 31, 2012. Today would be 142nd birthday of revolutionary Italian physician and educator, Maria Montessori. To celebrate, Montessori alums at Google displayed a Google doodle of traditional Montessori learning manipulatives on their homepage. That’s right – both Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, grew up as Montessori kids. What’s more, it […]